There’s no denying the fact that air fryers have forever altered the realm of cooking. The magical countertop cooking appliance can whip up anything and everything, including zucchini fries, crispy chicken tenders, and even steak. Cleanup is hassle-free, and it’s a relatively easy and healthy way of cooking. Many, if not most, Americans seem to agree.
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In an interview with the The New York Times, Joe Derochowski, the former vice president and home industry adviser at the market research firm NPD Group, revealed that air fryers generated $1 billion dollars in sales in 2022. Fast forward a year later, and Derochowski, who is now a home industry analyst at Circana, told the Chicago Tribune that Circana now estimates that about two-thirds of American households have air fryers.
“Air fryers moved up to the Number 4 appliance used at dinner last year. That's big,” Derochowski emphasized.
Those numbers are likely to climb as more and more chefs, both professional and at-home, continue to rely on the heating appliance for low-calorie, easy-to-make meals.
But if you jumped on the air fryer bandwagon any time between Aug. 2021 and Oct. 2023, you may want to rethink tonight’s dinner plans. Empower Brands just issued a recall for more than 300,000 units of its PowerXL™ DUAF-10 and DUAF-005 Vortex Dual-Basket Air Fryers.
On Dec. 14, the manufacturing company recalled about 319,000 units of the dual-basket air fryer after it received three reports of burn injuries, per the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). It’s important to note that the recall is for both models of the PowerXL air fryer: the 10-quart DUAF-10 model and 9-quart DUAF-005 model.
The model number will be located on either the power cord or on the bottom of the unit, per the CPSC. These specific units are valued between $60 and $190, and were sold at popular nationwide retailers such as Target, Walmart, and Kohls—both in store and online.
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The Power XL air fryers consist of two baskets that can be fused together to form one mega basket or used separately as two smaller baskets. According to the CPSC, “the plastic U-Channel connector used to optionally combine the two food baskets inside of the air fryers can break during use, posing a burn hazard.”
So far, Empower Brands has received 41 reports of product breakage while in use, along with those three reports of burn injuries. If your PowerXL™ DUAF-10 or DUAF-005 Vortex air fryer meets the description, Empower Brands is requesting that you stop using the appliance immediately and contact the company for a refund.
Empower Brands can be reached at 866-704-9370 during standard business hours from 8 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. CT Monday through Friday. You can also get in touch with someone online at the recall website.
